Page 1 of 4 CET308: User Experience Design Assignment 2016 Assignment is 100% of module marks Learning Outcomes Assessed: Knowledge 1. Critical appreciation of principles of human-centred design. 2. Critical appreciation of approaches to user experience evaluation methods. Skills 3. Critically evaluate the usability of a given interactive system 4. Formulate and apply techniques to elicit user data for design purposes Introduction: In this assignment you will demonstrate your understanding of a number of important practical activities within the filed of user experience design. The assignment activities map onto the three module themes: Understanding users, Interface Design Principles and Evaluation methods. You will practice each of these activities in the class tutorials. The final hand-in is in May 2016; there is also an assignment review to be held in April that is worth 10% of the module marks. Please remember at all times that usability research methods are empirical techniques and you are, therefore, required to demonstrate the authenticity of your work. You are also required to engage with users following the principles of informed consent. Please read the assignment brief carefully and please attempt all tasks. Product Choice: In order to complete this work you will need to identify a product upon which to focus. You should do this at an early point, as you cannot start to work on the assignment until you have identified the product. Please take account of the advice on product selection given below. You have a free choice in terms of what product you select. You may choose among: a website, application software (including mobile applications), a computer game. However, there are certain caveats that you need to keep in mind when choosing a product. If you ignore this advice and select a product that ultimately proves to be inappropriate, you will need to re-do the assignment activities. Please choose carefully! Page 2 of 4 Specific guidance: 1. The software needs to be large and complex. A large product such as an ecommerce website, or application software is more likely to contain usability issues than a small product that contains only limited interaction facilities. 2. Look for products that have menus, forms, and plenty of scope for interaction. 3. If the product is web-based, there is a risk that it will change over the period of the assignment or indeed it may be taken down altogether. You are therefore advised to document your work (screen shots and casts) as you go rather than wait until they end. If you do not do this and the site goes down you will need to restart the assignment. 4. As you progress through the assignment tasks you may decide that you want to change your product and therefore use different products for different tasks – we caution against this. You should use the same product throughout, unless of course the product is no longer available. If this happens contact the module leader as soon as possible. 5. You may not select Nexus.org or a university website Assignment Tasks: This assignment requires you to undertake the following 3 practical activities. o Elicit a user model of the information architecture of your product using the card sort method (you may narrow the architecture to 30 nodes (pages or screens) (35 marks) o Perform a Heuristic/Expert Inspection of the product using your knowledge of user interface design principles (20 marks) o Design and Pilot a usability study of the product and comment on the changes you would make to your test method (35 marks) The remaining 10 marks are allocated to the feedback review that will take place in week 38 (08/04/2016). During this session we will provide you with some qualitative feedback on your work and how to improve it. You will be given a mark out of ten for the progress you have made on the assignment activities. Given that the hand-in is only two weeks after the feedback session we would, ideally, expect to see evidence of tasks one and two during this session. Detailed Task Descriptions: Task One: Card Sort [35 marks] You will use the card sort method to elicit a user model of the information architecture of your chosen product. You will conduct 3 sorts with three representative users. When you have completed the three individual sorts you will analyse the results develop a compromise architecture map that would satisfy all three users. In order to run the sorts you will need to: Page 3 of 4 (i) Develop a single page user profile questionnaire to demonstrate your users are representative (you will re-use this in task 3) (ii) Prepare the cards for the sort (iii) Write some instructions for users (iv) Produce a consent form and information sheet (you will need to modify these and re-use in task 3) To ensure that the sort is manageable you may limit the sort to 30 cards. This means that you may not be able to address the entire information architecture of your product, instead you will focus on one or two main branches of the information hierarchy. When presenting your sort you will need to describe your users (summary of user profile), your process and your compromise structure with a brief account of your decision-making. Consent forms, information sheets and individual sort maps should be presented in the appendices of the assignment. Mark breakdown for this task [35 marks] User profile questionnaire [8 marks] Study documentation (info sheet, consent forms [5 marks] Card sort process Process [7 marks] Card sorting result: Compromise structure and justification [15 marks] Task two: Product Inspection [20 marks] You should use your knowledge of interaction design principles and heuristics to perform an Inspection of the product. You should document 3 usability problems. In other words, 2 areas where you believe the product contravenes the tenets of good design showing evidence of these breaches through annotated screenshots. You should present the results of your analysis with appropriate evidence (annotated screen shots, problem reports, textual problem descriptions). Marks are awarded for each of these components. This analysis should, therefore, show where and how the product contravenes design principles. You are expected to find and document 2 usability problems in detail. This means detailed descriptions of the problems with annotated screenshots and detailed problem reports. You should focus on finding high impact problems that affect interaction rather than simple layout problems. Only document 2 problems; there will be no additional marks for extra problems found. Marks break down for this task: [20 marks] Textual Problem Descriptions [4 marks per problem = 8 marks in total] Annotated screen shots [2 marks per problem = 4 marks in total] Completed problem reports [4 marks per problem = 8 in total] Task Three: Usability/ User Experience Test [35 marks] Using what you have learned about the product in tasks 1 and 2 you will now design a user experience test. You will pilot this test with 1 user and write up your findings. You will need to re-use your user profile questionnaire so to show that your test user is representative for your chosen product. Page 4 of 4 You will need to write a test introduction, identify a test method, identify tasks and experience measures to record. Once you have detailed your test plan, you should then recruit one user from one of your identified target user groups, and run a pilot test. On the basis of your test you should reflect on what changes you would make to the test methodology. As you are working with only a single user, you are not expected to draw firm conclusions about the usability of the product. Instead this task is intended to get you to think about how you might improve your test design. Marks break down for this task [35 marks] Test procedure including instruction script: You should describe the test procedure in a way that is repeatable [6 marks] Modified study documents (consent and information sheet) [5 marks] Task Set: You should present that tasks you have decided to use and briefly justify their use [6 marks] Identify and justification of the usability measures used [8 marks] Recommendations for improvements to your usability test [10 marks] 6. Report Sections The work should be presented as a type written report and contain a table of contents. You may include an appendix to hold any documents that support the analysis. The following sections should be present in the assignment document. a) Card Sort: Describe the process, present summary of user profile questionnaire, compromise structure and justification b) Inspection: Document your 2 usability problems with textual descriptions, annotated images and problem reports. c) Usability/User Experience test: Describe your test plan, justify your user experience measures and comment on how your method might be improved. d) Appendix: Documents to show authenticity, e.g. consent forms, information sheets, photos, screen casts, videos, user profile questionnaires (completed) and individual card sort maps. Hand-in Date and time: Hand in by 4pm on Thursday 5th May 2016 to the learning resource centre. Submission must be made in hard copy.